glitch-incited adventure!

if you have adhd, as i do, adventure is bound to find you sooner or later...and often! you never know when a brain glitch is going to create a unimaginable scenario from which you will have to extricate yourself with skill and savoir faire! this morning's ride was one of those glitch-instigated escapades. how i escaped the jaws of despair will amaze and astound even the most stable-minded among you.

i woke up and got out of bed just after 5:00 this morning. i checked the thermometer - 27 degrees - and then cleared out my closet so i'd have enough layers to stay warm. when i was dressed head to toe, i walked out to the garage, pulled on my headgear and gloves and reached to turn on my lights.

yesterday's ride was a long one and i actually ran the batteries on my headlight out. they were completely spent. when i pulled into the garage, i unplugged the battery from the light and went about the rest of my in-garage routine. then, evidently, i entered the house without plugging the battery into the charger. thus begins the adventure!

when i discovered my mistake, i was in a quandry. what was i going to do? if i wasn't so far from my cycling goal, no problem. i'd go for a run. but i need cycling miles! i had to come up with a solution.

i am not a mechanic or a mcguyver, but i can come up with answers to life's problems given enough time or the right amount of desperation. since today's incident fit in the second category, i almost immediately thought of the small LED flashlight i'd received as a gift recently. (shhhh! don't tell santa. we celebrated christmas over thanksgiving break with my family.) i ran in the house, grabbed the light and returned to the garage. i unstrapped the battery from the bike and plugged it into the charger. i may be dumb once, but i usually don't make the same mistake twice in the same week. usually. then i took the velcro strap that holds the battery and "tied" the flashlight securely to the bottom of my handle bars. (see picture below.) i turned it on and out the door i went! problem solved...sort of.

this exciting journey wasn't quite over yet. i rode west into the nearly non-existent wind. it was a beautiful morning. i was happy...until the light started getting dimmer. i had no spare batteries with my to power my redneck headlight, so a couple of miles out of town i turned back. i was mad. not furious like a giant squid in a "b" movie. more frustrated and a little off like the "mad" hatter in alice's little escapade. wonder if she had adhd. hmmm.

i rode back to town. the light kept working, but there were moments when the inky blackness almost swallowed up the tiny, flickering beam. when i reached the relative safety of argonia's city limits, i relaxed a bit. "this isn't so bad," i thought. "i'll just stay close and i'll be able to ride home if the light goes out."

and so i rode south and then north, back and forth, up and down main street with occasional detours onto side streets when traffic or a whim necessitated it. i did this for almost an hour and then i turned the corner and rolled back home.

after breakfast i went out for another ten miles. compared to the 15 or so earlier. these were dull. i hate dull! here's to more adventures. hope your day is more (or less if you prefer) interesting than mine! (25.64 miles @ 14.4mph)